The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter Unit Plan

Resources:

1. http://picturingamerica.salemstate.edu/images/unit10/Hodum_Lauren-Debunking_Hawthornes_Puritan_Myth.pdf
2. American Literature Outline
3. Read the e-book online
4. Audio Text: http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/127/the-scarlet-letter/2265/chapter-1-the-prison-door/
5. Study guide: http://www.penguin.com/static/pdf/teachersguides/scarletletter.pdf
6. ETEXT: http://www.planetpdf.com/planetpdf/pdfs/free_ebooks/The_Scarlet_Letter_T.pdf
7. Context and study questions: https://sites.google.com/site/mrsshanklesenglish11honors/home/scarlet-letter
8. After-Reading activity: Hester Prynn’s Prophecy
9. Purdue OWL (online writing lab). Purdue even has a YouTube channel, so if you are a visual learner, you should check them out.
10. YouTube video on writing an essay on The Scarlet Letter
11. Essay Assignements
12. ttps://www.vocabulary.com/lists/242540
13. https://guidetogrammar.org/grammar/adjectives.htm
14. http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/the-scarlet-letter.cfm
15. http://theliterarylink.com/questions_otherbooks.html#The%20Scarlet%20Letter

Essential Questions:

• How does an author use words to paint images?
• How is ethos established in works of fiction?
• What did the Puritan community look like?
• How did Puritan ideals effect Rationalist, Romantic, and Transcendental thought?
• What is our vision of Puritan America and how does it differ from Hawthorne’s?
• How did religion influence the development of democracy in the Colonial America?
• How did the role and impact of religion have on the establishment of the America colonies and its continued influence throughout the formation of the American identity?
• How should one keep one’s individuality while the society imposes its ideology on its members?
• How do people survive religious persecution or systematic discrimination?
• How and why does a society alienate a specific group of people or individuals?

Formative Assessment

Rhetorical Analysis

Read on page 228 the paragraph beginning “My little Pearl, ….through the next paragraph and ending with …Towards her mother, too, Pearl’s errand as a messenger of anguish was all fulfilled.”  An author of an allegory often uses a character to deliver a theme.   With this in mind, write a well-organized essay in which you discuss how Pearl’s “errand as a messenger of anguish” is fulfilled and helps to develop one of the major themes of this novel “Be True.”  You should share your observations and   interpretations by supporting them with evidence from the book.  You may paraphrase or quote.  Keep quotes to a maximum of four words.”  Do not just list the evidences.  Remember this is YOUR interpretation of how Hawthorne create the theme using one of his characters.

Summative Assessment

A. Argumentative Essay

The narrator of The Scarlet Letter asserts that people should “Show freely to the world, if not (their) worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred.” Write a carefully reasoned, persuasive essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies this assertion.  Use evidence from your observation, experiences, or reading to develop your position.

B. Literary Style and Themes

Hawthorne’s work belongs to Romanticism, an artistic and intellectual movement characterized by an emphasis on individual freedom from social conventions or political restraints, on human imagination, and on nature in a typically idealized form. Romantic literature rebelled against the formalism of 18th century reason.

Much of Hawthorne’s work is set in colonial New England, and many of his short stories have been read as moral allegories influenced by his Puritan background.

“The Romantic movement, which originated in Germany but quickly spread to England, France, and beyond, reached America around the year 1820, some 20 years after William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge had revolutionized English poetry by publishing Lyrical Ballads. In America as in Europe, fresh new vision electrified artistic and intellectual circles. Yet there was an important difference: Romanticism in America coincided with the period of national expansion and the discovery of a distinctive American voice. The solidification of a national identity and the surging idealism and passion of Romanticism nurtured the masterpieces of “the American Renaissance.”

C. Research Topics

• Examining 17th Century Material Culture
• Exploring Puritan Gravestones

D. Analysis Essay Topics

• Characterization in The Scarlet Letter
• Reading Images in The Scarlet Letter
• Nature in The Scarlet Letter

Unit Outline:

Pre-reading discussion-: Is The Scarlet Letter still relevant?

• Visit the two websites and respond to the question-
• http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/17/print/ main661803.shtml
• Visuals- click on the link and go to page 7-

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Suggested questions for annotations on a historical fiction:

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Introduction  As AP students studying language and composition, our purpose in reading The Scarlet Letter is not to study it as a work of fiction, but as a masterpiece of language.  Whether you may or may not find the story to be enjoyable, we need to draw our attention to the details of language.  Nathaniel Hawthorne is an artist; this novel is his masterpiece.  What elements of language did he use?  What strategies were chosen with his reader and his purpose constantly in mind?  We are ultimately studying his STYLE and the components that comprise it.

Style involves the author’s choice and arrangement of words in sentences (diction and syntax), the use of sensory and/or figurative language, the tone, and the mood.  Look for such things as the length and complexity of the sentences; the use of words that are obscure, and occasionally, archaic; his allusions (Old Manse, the War of 1812 in “The Custom House”, etc.); the balanced, often parallel syntax; the occasional metaphors; the excessive—by modern standards—punctuation; and the tone of friendly formality.

As you read, think of adjectives that describe Hawthorne’s style.  Think “outside the bubble”, too: How was this style created, and what is its effect on the reader?

The Novel

The Scarlet Letter explores the effects of sin, guilt, punishment, and revenge.  Below are some themes that run throughout the novel:

• • Guilt can destroy a person, body and soul.

• • The punishment imposed on us by others may not be as destructive as the guilt we experience.

• • True repentance must come from within.

• • Revenge destroys the victim and the seeker.

• • Even well-intended deceptions and secrets can lead to destruction.

• • One must have the courage to be true to one’s self.

• • It is by recognizing and dealing with their weaknesses that people grow stronger.

• • The choices people make determine what they become.

• Within each person is the capacity for both good and evil.

Rhetorical Devices to achieve purpose

Watch for the following as you read.  When you find prominent examples of each, actively consider why he used it and how he used it.  What is his purpose, and how does using rhetorical devices help him convey his purpose to the reader?

• • Contrasts (ie. Good/evil, dark/light, forest/town, color/absence of color, supernatural/ reality, etc.)

• Duality (ie. How does Pearl’s character reflect the duality of the Puritan community?)

• • Ambiguity

• • Allegory

• • Symbolism

• • Description

• • Word Choice (diction)

• • Connotations (especially with names); aka characternym (a name that symbolizes or stands for some aspect of the character’s personality)

• • Motif (hand over heart, The Black Man, the color red)

• Contradiction/ Irony

Your Assignment

As you read the novel, ANNOTATE it for the elements you read about above.   Identify stylistic choices as you read.  Analyze for their importance by asking questions, making connections, making predictions, and evaluating their effectiveness while you read.  ­Create and listseveral high-level questions throughout the novel that are based on your findings.

 You will be expected to bring forth numerous insightful details from the novel that convey Hawthorne’s style and purpose.  We will discuss in form of Socratic Seminar the elements you bring to the table.

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Lessons:

E-text of The Scarlet Letter ( Chapter by Chapter)

Audio Text: http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/127/the-scarlet-letter/2264/introduction-the-custom-house/

Lesson 1 : The Custom House

Text: http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/127/the-scarlet-letter/

Resources: http://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-scarlet-letter/the-custom-house

Objectives: Students will examine the narrator’s attitude toward conformity by observing his comments on the Puritan society, his split public and private identity.

Aim: What’s the narrator’s view toward the Puritan values? How does it reveal his his attitude toward conformity?

Agenda

Do Now: Describe an experience in which you feel you had to conform. How did that make you feel? Think of a historical person who didn’t conform to the societal norms? What happened to him/her? Why? Pair share.

Mini Lesson :  Rhetorical Devices to achieve purpose

Watch for the following as you read.  When you find prominent examples of each, actively consider why he used it and how he used it.  What is his purpose, and how does using rhetorical devices help him convey his purpose to the reader?

• • Contrasts (ie. Good/evil, dark/light, forest/town, color/absence of color, supernatural/ reality, etc.)

• • Duality (ie. How does Pearl’s character reflect the duality of the Puritan community?)

• • Ambiguity

• • Allegory

• • Symbolism

• • Description

• • Word Choice (diction)

• • Connotations (especially with names); aka characternym (a name that symbolizes or stands for some aspect of the character’s personality)

• • Motif (hand over heart, The Black Man, the color red)

• Contradiction/ Irony

Guided Practice

1. Watch a video about the Custom house. Why does the author begins his novel with the setting? What does the custom house come to represent?
2. Read the 1st two pages of chapter 1 and respond: How does the narrator immediately make a distinction of himself? See diction, detail and determine tone.
3. In small groups, students discuss the following questions-

a.“The Custom House”

The first “chapter” of the novel is called “The Custom House”, which is entirely a different style than the actual novel that follows.  In “The Custom House”, you will become acquainted with the important events of Hawthorne’s life, as well as some of the conventions that early novel writers used, and with Hawthorne’s prose style.  Some questions you should be able to answer after reading this section are:

-What is Romanticism?  What is the purpose of this chapter?  How does Hawthorne’s family history contribute to his attitude toward The Custom House and his place in society?

b. In the Introduction, how does the narrator describe Salem and his colleagues? What kind of attitude does he imply toward the Puritan society?

c. What does the narrator discover in the package?

d. How does the narrator describe his job and his colleges? How does he draws a distinction between his “figurative self,” whom the public would expect to be dismayed by the lost job, and the “real human being” who welcomed the changes in his life that allowed him to become “again a literary man”?

• • How would you describe Hawthorne’s attitude toward his former job and fellow workers?  Why do you think so?  (This is asking for TONE and evidence supporting your inference.)

• • In this essay, Hawthorne addresses the reader directly.  What effect does he create with this manner?

• What effect does the detailed description of the scarlet letter have on you?

End of the Lesson Assessment( Homework) : What’s the narrator’s view toward the Puritan values? How does it reveal his his attitude toward conformity?

Lesson 2: “The Prison Door” Close Reading

Objectives: Students will examine how the author implies that the Puritans deny their individual identity through examining the symbol used to compare the prison to a ” black flower”.

Aim: Why does Hawthorn describe prisons as the “black flower of civilized society?

Text: http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/127/the-scarlet-letter/2265/chapter-1-the-prison-door/

Resource:

• http://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-scarlet-letter/chapter-1
• Slide show –http://picturingamerica.salemstate.edu/images/unit10/Hodum_Lauren-Debunking_Hawthornes_Puritan_Myth.pdf

Agenda

Do Now: Interpret “The punishment imposed on us by others may not be as destructive as the guilt we experience.” Pair share.

Mini Lesson– Symbolism: What do “black flower ,”red rose”, and a “rose to the reader ” represent?

Activities:

1. Read as a class the 1st paragraph.

a. Highlight in one color all instances of Diction– both connotative and denotative

b. Highlight in a second color all instances of Detail- extra facts like colors, numbers, descriptions

c. Highlight in a third color imagery– phrases that appeal to your senses

d. Highlight in a fourth color interesting/ unique syntax

4. Students in groups of 4 share and discuss the meaning of their highlighted details( on a poster).

2. In a small group, discuss the Free Response Prompt:  In the following passage from Nathaniel Hawthorn’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the narrator provides a description of the prison door in Salem during Colonia American Period. Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze the author’s attitude toward the Puritan values through such literary techniques as tone, diction, and syntax.

3. Each group selects one stylistic element and analyze in writing how the author uses it to achieve his purpose.

The Prison-Door A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes. The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison. In accordance with this rule, it may safely be assumed that the forefathers of Boston had built the first prison-house, somewhere in the vicinity of Cornhill, almost as seasonably as they marked out the first burial-ground, on Isaac Johnson‘s lot, and round about his grave, which subsequently became the nucleus of all the congregated sepulchres in the old church-yard of King’s Chapel. Certain it is, that, some fifteen or twenty years after the settlement of the town, the wooden jail was already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age, which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front. The rust on the ponderous iron-work of its oaken door looked more antique than any thing else in the new world. Like all that pertains to crime, it seemed never to have known a youthful era. Before this ugly edifice, and between it and the wheel-track of the street, was a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pig-weed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison. But, on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him. This rose-bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally overshadowed it,–or whether, as there is fair authority for believing, it had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson, as she entered the prison-door,–we shall not take upon us to determine. Finding it so directly on the threshold of our narrative, which is now about to issue from that inauspicious portal, we could hardly do otherwise than pluck one of its flowers and present it to the reader. It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom, that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow.

Independent Practice

Use the Checklist to evaluate your group written response: 

1. Thesis( topic sentence) needs to respond specifically to the tasks- author’s attitude toward the Puritan values and the author’s use of literary devices.
2. In each body paragraph, the topic sentence needs to address one specific aspect of the topic ( author’s attitude toward the Puritan values) through a specific literary device.
3. Before you  provide a specific example to illustrate your claim ( topic sentence), provide a context.
4. Explain how the examples help you derive at your conclusion ( claim).
5. State ” so what”: how does the discussion relate to the larger thesis?
6. Be succinct and precise with your quotations.
7. Consider the three ways of identifying effective evidence: pattern, binary and anomaly.
8. Use one paragraph to discuss each of the author’s devices and connect the technique to meaning
9. Include a brief conclusion.

Homework: Revise the group paragraph and share it a google share file.

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Thesis Workshop

Objectives: Students will refine their thesis to reflect appropriately the content of their essay.

Aim: What’s an effective thesis? How do we use the thesis to highlight the essence of the essay?

Do Now: In groups of three, Share the thesis and make comments. Write the thesis on a poster paper.

Mini Lesson : Use the handout on thesis.

Meaning Making- In small groups, apply the strategies to refine the thesis.

Transfer: How do we use topic sentences and evidence to generate the most relevant thesis?

Homework:

1. Revise the thesis and essay. Draft 3 is due tomorrow.
2. Find “one interesting fact of life about daily living in Puritan colonies.” You may consider: – daily routine – dress – diet – important historical events – background on the Puritan belief system – social order – political order – position of women – attitudes and superstitions – important Puritan personages.
3. Write a one page a diary entry from the point of view of a Puritan to respond to a major event in Chapter 2 & 3. Develop a name, age, occupation and brief history of this individual. Be sure the diary entry reflects the Puritan’s value and belief.
4. Read and respond to the article: Still Puritan After All These Years (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/are-americans-still-puritan.html?_r=0). We’ll use the piece for our discussion of “The Market Place” from The Scarlet Letter. Consider the areas of –
   1. Work habit
   2. influence of the Christian doctrine ( the word “salvation” )
   3. Prudishness
   4. How do Puritanical values intermingle work, sex, and morality in the American mind?
   5. Non-religion based Puritan values guide the Americans’ moral judgement
   6. Attitude about work influence how Americans treat their co-workers. Why?
   7. Belief in self-reliance, self-discipline
   8. prejudice against racial minorities and the poor
   9. hostility toward welfare effort
   10. How did the Puritan values delineate in the American society? ( a powerful intellectual tradition disseminated through its universities, its dynamic print culture and writing, etc)

Lesson 3: Chapter 2-The Market Place

Objectives: Students will examine the Puritan value and culture by reading closely the descriptions of the villagers’ thoughts, image and reaction to the Hester’s “sin” and the use of symbolism; they will also reflect how the Puritan values still exist in today’s American society by comparing two texts.

Aim: How does the author reveal Puritans’ fusion of “law and religion” as well as their harsh values? How and why does American society still bear the marks of the Puritan values?

Texts:

1. Chapter 2  of The Scarlet Letter
2. Still Puritan After All These Years (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/are-americans-still-puritan.html?_r=0).

Resources:

• Chapter by Chapter Voc with Definitions
• Vocabulary List with definitions
• Text: http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/127/the-scarlet-letter/2267/chapter-2-the-market-place/
• http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/127/the-scarlet-letter/2268/chapter-3-the-recognition/
• Resource: http://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-scarlet-letter/chapter-2
• http://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-scarlet-letter/chapter-3
• Are Americans Still Puritans after All These Years? 

CC Standards

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.2
  Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1
  Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.4
  Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful
• l.11-12.5a-b
  Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

Agenda

1. Do Now: In small groups of three, share your research of “one interesting fact of life about daily living in Puritan colonies”. Share in class. Take notes while listening to the class discussion.
2. Acquisition ( Mini Lesson): Critical Summary & Use of symbolism

A. Summarize the setting, characters, and events of the chapter (RI.11-12.2)

B. Select one quotation that reveals explicitly or implicitly the Puritan value or culture ( character speech, thought or conduct or an event) Hint: why is Hester in jail? Why is she humiliated publicly? What kind of sentence do the villagers want to impose on her “crime”? Why?

C. Record examples of symbolism in a three-column graphic organizer: (1) List the symbols found in The Scarlet Letter, (2) provide proper citation information (page number, paragraph number, etc.), and (3) describe the meaning of the symbols in The Scarlet Letter. Students will continue to use the graphic organizer throughout the unit. (RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.4, L.11-12.5a-b)

Mid Lesson Assessment: How does the author reveal Puritans’ fusion of “law and religion” as well as their harsh values?

Meaning Making ( student independent discussion):

1. Based on your imaginary diary entry from the point of view of a Puritan, what type of values can you infer, which dictates their thinking?  Make a list as a group.
2. Why is American society still reflective of the Puritan values, according to the article  “Still Puritan After All These Years“?  (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/are-americans-still-puritan.html?_r=0).  Consider-
   1. Work habit
   2. influence of the Christian doctrine ( the word “salvation” )
   3. Prudishness
   4. How do Puritanical values intermingle work, sex, and morality in the American mind?
   5. Non-religion based Puritan values guide the Americans’ moral judgement
   6. Attitude about work influence how Americans treat their co-workers. Why?
   7. Belief in self-reliance, self-discipline
   8. prejudice against racial minorities and the poor
   9. hostility toward welfare effort
   10. How did the Puritan values delineate in the American society? ( a powerful intellectual tradition disseminated through its universities, its dynamic print culture and writing, etc)

End of the Lesson Assessment: How do some of the Puritan values you have inferred from chapter two still play a major role in the American society? Provide an example to illustrate your point.

Homework: Read and annotate Chapter 3 and an excerpt from Democracy in America (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/ch1_05.htm). Find evidence  of how Tocqueville argues that the importance of a general conception of God and responsibility should be left to fellow man while matters that not essential aspects of religion to majority rule.

Lesson 4 Chapter 3 Recognition

Objectives: Students will analyze the tension of the market scene through the harshness of the Puritan culture and the complexity of human nature represented by Chillingworth.

Aim: What is the tension in the ” Recognition” scene? Why?

Agenda

Do now: Provide a critical summary by describing the setting, character and event of Chapter 3. Share.

Acquisition: How does Chillingworth represent not only the Puritan world but also the inequity in human nature?

Activity 1: Why is American society still reflective of the Puritan values, according to the article  “Still Puritan After All These Years“?  (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/are-americans-still-puritan.html?_r=0).

1. Work habit
2. influence of the Christian doctrine ( the word “salvation” )
3. Prudishness
4. How do Puritanical values intermingle work, sex, and morality in the American mind?
5. Non-religion based Puritan values guide the Americans’ moral judgement
6. Attitude about work influence how Americans treat their co-workers. Why?
7. Belief in self-reliance, self-discipline
8. prejudice against racial minorities and the poor
9. hostility toward welfare effort
10. How did the Puritan values delineate in the American society? ( a powerful intellectual tradition disseminated through its universities, its dynamic print culture and writing, etc)

Share in a small group and point one element you strongly agree and explain why.

Activity 2: According to Toqueville, what role does Religion play in a democratic society? In order to understand the question, first we need to understand Toqueville’s views on the following-

1. Why did people need to believe in God? What role did religion play in the feudal or caste-defined society?
2. Why is Christianity the religion that would allow democracy to emerge and grow?
3. What is the essence of democracy?
4. Why, in America, does the system guarantee human equality as well as the freedom of religion, which are seemingly contradictory?

Activity 3: Discuss the scene.

Meaning Making-

Respond- What is the tension in the ” Recognition” scene? Why?

Lesson 4A Chapter 3

Objectives: Students will be able to analyze Chapter 3 rhetorically by examining its rhetorical purpose.

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

Aim: What is Hawthorne’s rhetorical purpose (what does he want us to understand about Hester?) in his portrayal of her standing on the pedestal holding little Pearl? How do Hawthorne’s language choices help him achieve his purpose?

Do Now: Form a group of 3. Share one quotation from Tocqueville’s writing that you agree and share one quote that you disagree with. Do make sure you explain why.

Mini Lesson and Guided Practice

We’ll analyze the following passage rhetorically.

While this passed, Hester Prynne had been standing on her pedestal, still with a fixed gaze towards the stranger; so fixed a gaze, that, at moments of intense absorption, all other objects in the visible world seemed to vanish, leaving only him and her.  Such an interview, perhaps, would have been more terrible than even to meet him as she now did, with the hot, midday sun burning down upon her face, and lighting up its shame; with the scarlet token of infamy on her breast; with the sin-born infant in her arms; with a whole people, drawn forth, as to a festival, staring at the features that should have been seen only in the quiet gleam of the fireside, in the happy shadow of a home, or beneath a matronly veil, at church.

Terms we will use:

• Parallelism:  the repetition of similar grammatical constructions
• Antithesis:  the contrast of opposites, usually in a parallel structure
• Connotation: the emotional charge of a word; the feelings suggested.
• Imagery:  words appealing to the senses

All the devices mentioned above may be part of a passage’s Emotional Appeal.  They will also create a particular Tone.  Most complex passages will have two or more Tones.

1. To analyze Hawthorne’s parallelism, we will break up the syntax (sentence structure) of his long sentence.

. . . as she now did (meet the stranger)

with ___________________________________________________________________

with____________________________________________________________________

with____________________________________________________________________

with____________________________________________________________________

staring at the features that should have been seen only

in__________________________________________________________________

in__________________________________________________________________  or

beneath______________________________________________________________.

2. What connotative language in the first set of parallel phrases contributes to our understanding of Hester’s suffering and shame? List the words and explain their effects:

3. How does the connotative language in the second set of parallel phrases represent a rhetorical shift? In other words, how does the language create a different picture of Hester?  List particular words and their effects:

4. Explain how the contrast between the “with” parallel phrases and the “in” parallel phrases creates antithesis. What is Hawthorne’s purpose here?

Your rhetorical analysis paragraph may begin in this way:

In his description of Hester on the pedestal, and his contrast of her present shame with images of the quiet life she deserves to live, Hawthorne creates for his readers a clear sense of Hester’s shame.   His repetition of the phrase “so fixed a gaze” reveals the intensity of Hester’s feeling as her husband sees her with her illegitimate baby.  She is so overcome by this recognition that “all other objects in the visible world seemed to vanish.”  Hawthorne communicates the depth of Hester’s suffering with parallel phrases that emphasize her punishment.  Connotative language suggests the pain of fire as “the hot, midday sun” burns down upon her face.  This sun “lights up” her shame, cruelly exposing her to the townspeople.

Independent Practice

Continue with your rhetorical analysis of the rest of chapter 3. If you have trouble with understanding the text, use the following questions to guide you:

• Who is the stranger?
• What does Hawthorne’s repetition of “so fixed a gaze” tell us about the intensity of Hester’s recognition?
• What kind of interview would have been more terrible than the one she now faces? Why?

Homework: Write a well-developed paragraph as a complete response to chapter 3.

Lesson 5 Chapter 4 Interview

Objectives: Students will gain insight into Chillingworth’s character through his attitude toward Hester and her ” crime”.

Aim: How would you describe Chillingworth’s character? In what ways does her represent the Puritan values?

Do NOW: Share ideas from the synthesis sheet.

Mini Lesson

1. Discuss the exhibitions of the Puritan values in today’s American society.
2. Discuss Toqueville’s essay on region and democracy.

Student Independent Activity

Review the questions below based on the chapters we have read. Be sure to know the answer to these important questions.

1. who is this guy in the crowd? does anything about him sound familiar?
2. what animal is this guy compared to? When we use “like” what device is that?
3. what’s the backstory on the stranger?
4. what’s the backstory on Hester? why is she in America without her husband?
5. what’s the irony of the line that says “Peradventure the guilty one stands looking in at this sad spectacle, unknown of man, and forgetting that God sees him.”
6. what 2 reasons are given for Hester’s light sentence?
7. underline “But he will be known! – he will be known! – he will be known!”
8. how is Governor Bellingham described? What did Hawthorne mean when he wrote that these men on the platform were “belonging to a period when the forms of authority were felt to possess the sacredness of Divine institutions”.
9.  who is John Wilson? What did Hawthorne mean when he said that Wilson “had no more right than one of those portraits would have to step forth, as he now did, and meddle with a question of human guilt, passion, and anguish”?
10. how is Dimmesdale described?
11.  what does Dimmesdale say to Hester? What hidden messages are in there?
12. what bribe does John Wilson offer Hester? What is her reaction??-pg 64 – who says “speak, woman! . . and give your child a father”.
13.  what is Dimmesdale reaction when Hester won’t tell who the father is?
14. what kind of sermon does Wilson preach?
15.  what’s the rumor about the “A” and the passageway of the jail?

End of the Lesson Assessment

Hawthorne came from a long line of Puritans (one of his forefathers was a judge during the Salem witch trials), and Puritan beliefs about subjects like guilt, repression, original sin, and discipline inform the book on every level. What is your impression of how the Puritan worldview is taken up and treated by Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter?”

Homework: Read and annotate Chapter 5 and respond to the End of the Lesson prompt.

Lesson 6 Synthesis workshop

Texts:

• The Minister’s Black Veil
• Toqueville’s “Democracy in America”
• Sinner’s in the Hands of an Angry God
• Chapters 1-4, The Scarlet Letter

Objectives: Students will synthesize four texts and determine which texts mostly effectively express the central idea and how the author manages to achieve the goal.

Aim: What do these four texts share in common?

Do Now:

• Identify unknown vocabulary (e.g., edifice, physiognomies, antinomian, magistrate, malefactresses, sumptuary, evanescent, ignominy, iniquity, contumely, phantasmagoric, remonstrance) and sentences with complicated, unusual, or interesting syntax.
• Quiz on questions from lesson 5.

Mini Lesson

Review the Puritan values in today’s American society.

In pairs, outline Tocqueville’s argument, focusing on the following questions:

1. Identify two to three central ideas being discussed. What is Tocqueville’s stated purpose?
2. Next to each paragraph, paraphrase or summarize the content. (RI.11-12.2)
3. How do the central ideas interact over the course of the text? Identify three quotations from the text that support this intersection and the relationship between the ideas. (RI.11-12.1, RI.11-12.2, RI.11-12.3)
4. Explain the structure of Tocqueville’s argument based on how each paragraph relates. Does the structure support his argument and make it more clear, convincing, or engaging? (RI.11-12.5)
5. How does Tocqueville appeal to his audience to convince them of his purpose? (RI.11-12.6)

Student Independent Activity

Synthesize information from each of the four texts read thus far. (RL.11-12.9, RI.11-12.9, SL.11-12.1a-d, SL.11-12.4, SL.11-12.6) Use accountable talk and cite textual evidence throughout the discussion. (RL.11-12.1, RI.11-12.1) Possible discussion questions:

1. How do varying levels of religious influence on governments dictate moral and ethical law?
2. How does a society’s definition of “sin” influence/affect the individual?
3. What role do hypocrisy and conformity play in the beginning of The Scarlet Letter?
4. What cautions does Tocqueville have about Americans?
5. Tocqueville explains that for religions to be successful in a democratic age, they must “confine themselves strictly within the circle of spiritual matters.” How does this fit in with what we’ve seen in The Scarlet Letter so far?
6. Has Hester committed a crime or is this really more of a spiritual matter?

End of the Lesson Assessment

• Evaluate Hawthorne’s choice to use a frame narrative for The Scarlet Letter. What is the effect of this structure? How does this affect the themes or meaning of the text?
• Develop a composition in response to the following prompt: What is the function of the past in The Scarlet Letter?  As part of your composition, consider why Hawthorne uses a frame narrative rather than simply telling the story. Why might he set the events in history? Why would Hawthorne choose to start the events of the story with Hester already in prison? What effect do these choices have on the reader?

Homework A: Read “The Minister’s Black Veil.” How does each author of the four texts  convey his meaning to the readers? Which author’s style is more effective and why?

Homework B: Do a PBFF response to The Minister’s Black Veil; read chapters 6-8 and write a chapter summary for each. Note the thematic development in each chapter and how the author achieve his intention.

Lesson 7 Chapters 6-8

Objectives: Students will demonstrate their understanding of how each chapter contributes to the building of overall themes of the work by presenting their analysis of character, setting and use of symbolism in a small group.

(Objectives: Students will analyze how Hawthorn uses setting, characters and actions to develop themes over the course of the text through  examining textual details, the Puritan values and tracing character development.)

Aim: How does Hawthorn develop various themes in chapters 6-8?

Agenda

1. Do Now: Review Lesson 6 mini lesson questions and discuss End of the Lesson assessment.
2. Study unknown vocabulary from the chapters
3. Summarize the setting, characters ad events of each chapter.
4. Reread Mistress Hibbins in the story. What does she represent?
5. Student independent activity.
6. End of the lesson assessment

Do Now

Review Lesson 6 mini lesson questions and discuss End of the Lesson assessment.

Mini Lesson :

1. Identify unknown vocabulary (e.g., marry, sagacity, obstinacy, fervor, alchemy, inquest, vivify, contumaciously, imbued, enmity, expatiating, unfeignedly, imbibes) and sentences with complicated, unusual, or interesting syntax. Explain the meaning of the words, how they are used in context (i.e., determine the part of speech based on its affix or placement in the sentence), and verify the meaning and part of speech in a dictionary. (L.11-12.4a-d, L.11-12.6) Then paraphrase or break down the sentences into shorter sentences and record the words, definitions, original sentences, and paraphrased sentences in a consistent location (i.e., journals). (L.11-12.1a-b, L.11-12.3a)
2. Comparison of characters

Reread the section where Hester encounters Mistress Hibbins. Working in pairs, have students determine Hawthorne’s purpose for including Mistress Hibbins in the story. What does she represent?

Student Independent Activities

o Summarize the setting, characters, and events of Chapters 3-8. (RL.11-12.2)
o Record examples of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter on a three-column graphic organizer

(1) List the symbols found in The Scarlet Letter,

(2) provide proper citation information (page number, paragraph number, etc.), and

(3) describe the meaning of the symbols in The Scarlet Letter.Continue using the graphic organizer.

End of the Lesson Assessment: write a brief comparison between Hawthorne’s introduction of Dr. Chillingworth and his introduction of Mistress Hibbins. What are the impacts of these choices? Which seems to be most effective? (RL.11-12.3, W.11-12.9 a, W.11-12.10)

Homework: Complete the end of the lesson assessment.

Lesson 8 chapters 9-12

Objectives: Students will continue to examine the overall themes of the novel through making close observations and analysis of the plot development, author’s diction, syntax, imagery and use of symbolism.

Aim: How does the author use the plot development,  diction, syntax, imagery and symbolism to continue exploring the overall themes?

Resources: The Voice Lesson ( Handouts for diction, Syntax and Imagery)

Agenda

1. Summarize the setting, characters, and events of each chapter (RL.11-12.2)
2. Share definitions of unknown vocabulary.
3. Workshop on how to analyze literary device
4. Students independently discuss and analyze how the author uses the device(s) to convey meaning
5. Share in class
6. End of the Lesson Assessment

Do Now: Summarize the setting, characters, and events of each chapter

Mini Lessons on diction, syntax, imagery and symbolism (click linked handouts )

Meaning Making- Student Independent Work( Responding to the questions; End of the lesson assessment)

Activity 1: Use the chapter study questions to guide your discussion-

Chapter 9:

1. How does Chillingworth make a place for himself in Boston
   society? Why are we as readers suspicious of his professional and social
   motivations? Why does this suspicion seem to be absent from the narrator’s tone?
2. What biblical stories are portrayed in the decorations of
   Dimmesdale’s room? What themes or issues are suggested by these
   stories?

What two conflicting ideas did the townspeople hold about
Chillingworth?

End of the Lesson Assessment: How does the author use diction to reveal Chilingworth’s character?

Chapter 10:

1. What does Chillingworth suggest is the cause of Dimmesdale’s “illness”?
2. What important discovery does Chillingworth make while  Dimmesdale is sleeping? How does the narrator describe Chillingworth’s joy and why is this description meaningful?

End of the Lesson Assessment: How does the author use syntax to reveal the relathinship between Chillingwoth and Dimmesdale ?

Chapter 11:

1. How and why does Chillingworth change his purpose in light  of his discussion
2. How does Dimmesdale’s suffering affect his work as a  clergyman? What is the public reaction when Dimmesdale “confesses” his sinfulness from the pulpit? Describe and analyze the narrator’s tone toward Dimmesdale as he describes this confession.
3. Through what practices does Dimmesdale seek penance for his  sins? What is the narrator’s tone toward Dimmesdale as he relates these  practices?

End of the lesson Assessment: Syntax 

Directions:

1. Find an example in chapter 11 of each of the following sentence structures: simple, appositive, participial phrase, balanced sentence, antithesis.
2. Write out the entire sentence.
3. For each sentence, underline a word you don’t know or that is used in a unique/important way and write the meaning, or analyze an especially important aspect of diction.
4. Explain the structure of the sentence.
5. Connect the structure to context and meaning (analysis).
6. Follow my examples.  Remember, your sentences must come from Chapter 11, The Scarlet Letter.

Example:

Balanced sentence

“Her needle-work was seen on the ruff of the Governor; military men wore it on their scarfs, and the minister on his band; it decked the baby’s little cap; it was shut up, to be mildewed and moulder away, in the coffins of the dead” (57).

Mildew and moulder: These words describe literally the rotting of Hester’s fabric in the grave, but suggest, like the mention of the cemetery in Ch. 1, a corruption in the Puritans’ treatment of her.

Analysis: Through a series of parallel independent clauses, the narrator shows us the people who, according to the preceding sentence, satisfy their “vanity” by wearing clothing “wrought by [Hester’s] sinful hands”.  Through balance, the syntax compares the members of the government, military, and clergy to infants and the rotting dead.  Thus, the syntax makes a subtle commentary on the blindness and corruption of these governing bodies, supporting the narrator’s satirical mention of their vain desire to decorate themselves, even if it means employing a sinner.  Thus, these authorities possess a hypocrisy in their indictment and ostracism of Hester.

Antithesis: As a literary device, antithesis makes contrasts in order to examine pros and cons of a subject under discussion and helps to bring forth judgment on that particular subject. An example of antithetical sentence structure( cited from http://literarydevices.net/antithesis/)

The opening lines of Charles Dickens’ novel “ A Tale of Two Cities” provides an unforgettable antithesis example:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing  before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”

The contrasting ideas, set in parallel structures, markedly highlight the conflict that existed in the time which was discussed in the novel.

Chapter 12:

1. Why does Dimmesdale go to stand on the  scaffold?
2. Which two people come to their window when Dimmesdale  shrieks? What symbolism might be involved in the author’s choice of these two  characters
3. What question does Pearl ask Dimmesdale? What is his answer?  Why is this interaction significant?
4. What “sign” appears in the sky? How is it described? What two interpretations are offered by which  characters?

Directions:

1. Find an example in chapter 12 of each of the following sentence structures: simple, appositive, participial phrase, absolute phrase, compound sentence.
2. Write out the entire sentence.
3. For each sentence, underline a word you don’t know or that is used in a unique/important way and write the meaning, or analyze an especially important aspect of diction.
4. Explain the structure of the sentence.
5. Connect the structure to context and meaning (analysis).
6. Follow my examples.  Remember, your sentences must come from Chapter 12 of The Scarlet Letter.

Example:

Appositive phrase

“Before this ugly edifice, and between it and the wheel-track of the street, was a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pig-wheel, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison.”

Congenial: Suited to one’s needs or nature; agreeable

Analysis: The narrator uses the appositive phrase “a prison” to re-name his metaphor for the building: “the black flower of civilized society.”  Before the appositive, he uses imagery of vegetation to reveal the corruption of the prison, such as the parallel list of the types of weeds that grow beside it.  The metaphor is especially fitting, then, as a black flower is a dead flower, a corrupted flower.  The appositive reminds us that crime—the element that the Puritans can never eradicate—holds responsibility for this ruin.

 Activity 2: How does the author use each literary device to convey his meaning?

1. How does Hawthorn use diction to portray Chillingworth? ( chapter 9)
2. How does Hawthorn use syntax in this chapter to emphasize on a particular idea? ( chapter 10)
3. How does Hawthorn use syntax to convey the overall meaning of chapter 11
4. How does Hawthorn use syntax to convey the overall meaning of chapter 12?

End of the Lesson Assessment: How does the close reading of textual details and examination of literary devices help you understand the characters, situations or themes more in depth?

Lesson 9: Rhetorical Analysis Workshop( See Power Point Presentation )

Lesson 10

Lesson description: These two chapters and this speech focus on the intersections between justice and religion. Students can focus on scenes that show the interaction between Hester and Chillingworth to examine how Hawthorne develops the characters through those interactions. (RL.11-12.3) Brown comments on God’s word and the actions of the court, which mirror the idea of the magistrate in the anchor text, as Hester has been put on trial for a sin rather than a crime

Objectives: Students will analyze how characters make decisions and deal with guilt through examining rhetorical devices used by the author.

Aim: How does Hawthorn reveal the complexity of characters?

Texts:

1. Chapters 13-14 from The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
2. John Brown’s Speech to the Court at His Trial, John Brown
3. Vocabulary List

Do Now: Examine the development of Dr. Chillingworth by tracing his transformation over the course of the novel so far.

Agenda

Mini Lesson-

• Identify unknown vocabulary (e.g., obviated, ethereal, acquiescing, rankle, propinquity, usurp, retribution) and sentences with complicated, unusual, or interesting syntax. Explain the meaning of the words, how they are used in context (i.e., determine the part of speech based on its affix or placement in the sentence), and verify the meaning and part of speech in a dictionary. (L.11-12.4a-d, L.11-12.6)
• Identify various sentence structure and discuss how they contribute to the character development.Guided Discussion
• Chapter 13:
  • How has Hester’s position in the community changed? How is this linked to any change in the townspeople’s perception of the scarlet letter’s symbolism? Explain the narrator’s comment that “the scarlet letter had not done its office.”
  • Describe the changes in Hester’s appearance and temperament that have come as a result of wearing the scarlet letter. Include an explanation of how her view on womanhood has changed.
  • What stimulus gives Hester the courage to confront Chillingworth, to act on Dimmesdale’s behalf?
  • Write a well-developed paragraph to discuss how diction contributes to the overall meaning of the chapter.Chapter 14:During his conversation with Hester, what opinion of Dimmesdale’s character does Chillingworth offer? Why does he refuse to leave him alone? Why does he insist that Dimmesdale has “increased the debt”?Write a well-developed paragraph to discuss how diction contributes to the overall meaning of the chapter.
  • Meaning Making ( Student Independent Work):
• Summarize the setting, characters, and events of Chapters 13-14. (RL.11-12.2)
• Record examples of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter on a three-column graphic organizer (continuing the graphic organizer begun in lesson 2): (1) List the symbols found in The Scarlet Letter, (2) provide proper citation information (page number, paragraph number, etc.), and (3) describe the meaning of the symbols in The Scarlet Letter. Students will continue to use the graphic organizer throughout the unit. (RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.4, L.11-12.5a-b)

In pairs, outline Brown’s argument, focusing on the following questions: (RI.11-12.8, RI.11-12.9)

• What is the meaning of incite, insurrection, and enactments? (L.11-12.4a)
• Identify two central ideas being discussed. What is Brown’s stated purpose? (RI.11-12.2)
• Next to each paragraph, paraphrase or summarize the content. (RI.11-12.2)
• How do the central ideas interact over the course of the text? Identify three quotations from the text that support this intersection and the relationship between the ideas. (RI.11-12.1, RI.11-12.2, RI.11-12.30
• Explain the structure of Brown’s argument based on how each paragraph relates. Does the structure support his argument and make it more clear, convincing, or engaging? (RI.11-12.5)
• What is the significance of Brown’s repeated use of intend/intended and interfered/interference in paragraphs 1 and 2? How do these words contribute to the meaning of his argument? (L.11-12.4b, L.11-12.5b)
• Brown repeatedly uses an em dash (—) within his sentences. Explain how Brown uses the em dash within the sentences. How do the phrases following the dash relate to the first part of the sentence? How does Brown’s use of this structure affect the variety and fluency of his sentences? What is the effect of this structure? (RI.11-12.4, RI.11-12.6, L.11-12.2a)
• How does Brown appeal to his audience to convince them of his purpose? (RI.11-12.6)

Assessment ( oral discussion in a fish bowl activity)-

We’ll conduct a discussion in which you synthesize information from each of the texts read thus far. (RL.11-12.2, RL.11-12.9, RI.11-12.9, SL.11-12.1a-d, SL.11-12.4, SL.11-12.6) Cite textual evidence throughout the discussion. (RL.11-12.1) Here are the discussion questions based on John Brown’s writing-

• How do varying levels of religious influence on governments dictate moral and ethical law?
• How does a society’s definition of “sin” influence/affect the individual?
• How do hypocrisy and conformity continue to interact in The Scarlet Letter?
• In Chapter 14, court magistrates consider allowing Hester to remove her mark, but she refuses. Explain how this relates to the ideas Brown expresses in his speech?

Assessment on the chapters-

Explain the details of Chillingworth’s “revenge.” (RL.11-12.3, W.11-12.2a-f, L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2a-b, L.11-12.3a) As part of your composition, consider how Chillingworth is perceived by the other characters in the story. What happens to him as a result of his actions? Why does Chillingworth choose to torture Dimmesdale and Hester when he could simply reveal that he is Hester’s husband? What does this imply about justice and evil?

Homework: Write a response in which you discuss how Brown’s viewpoints are illustrated in Hawthorn’s novel, chapters 13-14. Be sure to synthesize the texts.

Lesson 11

Objectives: Students will be able to explain why Chillingworth is a “fiend” or not by examining the character from multiple points of view.

Aim: Is Chillingworth a fiend? Why or why not?

Do Now: Write a narrative from a character’s point of view about how s/he feels about Chillingworth. You will be randomly assigned a role from the following: Dimmesdale, Hester, a villager, Hawthorn, and Chillingworth himself.

Acquisition:

1. Understanding a character from multiple perspectives – synthesis
2. Analyzing a character from a modern perspective- making connections with the real world: Of whom ,among modern TV series or films, does Chillingworth remind you? Why?
3. Synthesis: How to synthesize two works of literature?

Presentation- Role Play

Chillingworth , a fiend? Why or why not?

Students will do role play to share various characters’ perspectives on Chillingworth.

End of the lesson Assessment: What’s your new thought on Chillingworth? If you have changed your view, why? if not, why not?

Homework: Revise the monologue you started in class. Read and annotate chapters 18 $ 19.

Lesson 12

Objectives: Students will defend their point of view toward Chillingworth through role pay.

Aim: Do you believe the character Chillingworth is evil ? Why or why not?

Do Now: in groups of 3-

1. First, students with the same  character share your homework . Mark the best evidence . Add a sentence or two based on the group sharing.
2. Now, students with different characters share.
3. Find direct comments on Chillingworth  from the  book by Hawthorn and add to your point of view writing. Place it under the title.

Mini lesson:

1. Dramatic reading of chapter 16 , the dialogue between Hester and Chillingworth. Makes notes of your new observation
2. Dramatic reading  of chapter 17, the dialogue between Hester and  Dimmesdale.

Independent reflection: How does the role play give you new insights about the character? Do you believe him still to be evil?Explain.

Homework: Do one of the following-

A. Write an editorial for a newspaper. Imagine the complex relationship between Chillingwirhcs dcDimnesdaje is revealed, in the local newspaper, you comment on Chillingwirth for what he has done.

B. Write an editorial on Chillingworth from a modern reader’s perspective. Will he still be called a fiend?

Read and annotate Chapter 20.

Lesson 13

Texts: Chapters 15- 16 from The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
“The Devil and Tom Walker,” Washington Irving

TEXT DESCRIPTION: In these chapters, there appears to be a shift in the action as Hester becomes aware of Chillingworth’s evil intent and Pearl recounts a story she has heard. The short story is a tall tale based on the Faustian legend (the same bargain and consequences but in an American setting).

TEXT FOCUS: These chapters in The Scarlet Letter set the stage for the denouement of the story. Much like the story that Pearl overhears, “The Devil and Tom Walker” tells about someone selling his soul to the devil. Both texts examine religion, sin, evil, and redemption and their influence on the development of characters, events, and themes of the unit texts. (RL.11-12.2, RL.11-12.3)

Objectives: Students will be able to read Chapters 15-16 from The Scarlet Letter and “The Devil and Tom Walker” independently, and then analyze the author’s choices in each text by participating in a discussion about the connections between each text.

Aim: Why and how does Hester confront Chillingworth and Dimmesdale respectively? How do her encounters with the two important men in her life reveal her character?

Do Now: Review the vocabulary in teh cahpters-

Identify unknown vocabulary (e.g., verdure, sedulous, petulant, precocity, vivacity, asperity, scintillating, loquacity, prattle) and sentences with complicated, unusual, or interesting syntax. Explain the meaning of the words, how they are used in context (i.e., determine the part of speech based on its affix or placement in the sentence), and verify the meaning and part of speech in a dictionary. (L.11-12.4a-d, L.11-12.6) .

Mini Lesson:

• Summarize the setting, characters, and events of Chapters 15-16. (RL.11-12.2). Share.
• Share examples of symbolism in these two chapters , in particular, symbolism pertaining to the scarlet A. You will continue to use the graphic organizer throughout the unit. (RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.4, L.11-12.5a-b).
• We’ll discuss “The Devil and Tom Walker” and make connections between the tale and The Scarlet Letter. (RL.11-12.2, RL.11-12.9, SL.11-12.1a-d, SL.11-12.4, SL.11-12.6)

Independent Group Work: Use accountable talk and cite textual evidence throughout the discussion: (RL.11-12.1)

• Hester feels evil creeping into her heart. Determine the cause(s) of this evil and the results of it. How has Hester’s suffering, once the result of her sin versus the expectations of Puritanical society, transformed? (RL.11-12.3)
• Why hasn’t Hester ever visited Dimmesdale in his study? What does Hester’s desired meeting place suggest about the nature of their relationship?
• According to Pearl, why does the sunshine “love” her and not Hester? Why is Pearl’s observation significant?
• What questions does Pearl repeat throughout chapters 15 and 16? What do these questions suggest about Pearl and about her relationship with her mother?
• What is the significance of Pearl’s fascination with the “A” and her ability to connect Hester and Rev. Dimmesdale when nobody else seems to be able to? (RL.11-12.3)
• How does Irving’s use of imagery contribute to the meaning of the story? For example, what does the introduction of Tom, his wife, and their house reveal about their characters? How does Irving’s word choice contribute to that meaning? (RL.11-12.3, RL.11-12.4, L.11-12.5b)
• What might Irving’s purpose be for using exaggeration and humor in “The Devil and Tom Walker”? (RL.11-12.6, L.11-12.5a) What might Irving be satirizing?
•  What is the purpose of the narrator’s disclaimers in Irving’s tall tale? How does the choice for Hawthorne to use the narrator in this way impact the meaning of the text? (RL.11-12.5, RL.11-12.6)

Homework: Write a timed essay in response to the following prompt-

Explain Tom’s dramatic attempt to become religious and spare himself. What is the ultimate result? How does this idea relate to the other texts in this unit? (RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.2, RL.11-12.3, RL.11-12.9, W.11-12.2a-f, W.11-12.4, W.11-12.9a-b, L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2a-b, L.11-12.3a)

Lesson 14( Chapters 17-20 from The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne)

TEXT DESCRIPTION: In this section of the novel, there is an incident in the forest that is reminiscent of that in Irving’s story.

Objectives: Students will analyze the encounter in the forest by considering Hawthorne’s choices concerning setting and how those choices impact the development of the theme over the course of the story. (RL.11-12.2, RL.11-12.3)

Aim: What’s the significance of the scene that takes place in the forest? Why?

Do Now:

• Identify unknown vocabulary (e.g., malevolent, misanthropy, consecration, estranged, machinations, inured, mollified, vicissitude, introspection, irrefragable, obeisance) and sentences with complicated, unusual, or interesting syntax.
• Explain the meaning of the words, how they are used in context (i.e., determine the part of speech based on its affix or placement in the sentence), and verify the meaning and part of speech in a dictionary. (L.11-12.4a-d, L.11-12.6)
• Then paraphrase or break down the sentences into shorter sentences and record the words, definitions, original sentences, and paraphrased sentences in a consistent location (i.e., journals). (L.11-12.1a-b, L.11-12.3a)

Mini Lesson

• Summarize the setting, characters, and events of Chapters 17-20. (RL.11-12.2)
• Continue recording examples of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter on a three-column graphic organizer (continuing the graphic organizer. (RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.4, L.11-12.5a-b)
• Compare and contrast the forest encounter in The Scarlet Letter to that in “The Devil and Tom Walker.” (RL.11-12.3, RL.11-12.9)
• Describe the reaction of Pearl in the forest. Why is she upset? What seems to make everything okay again? (RL.11-12.3)
• What is the function of the physical setting in The Scarlet Letter? (RL.11-12.3, RL.11-12.5) What is the relationship between the book’s events and the locations in which these events take place? Do things happen in the forest that could not happen in the town? What about time of day? Does night bring with it a set of rules that differs from those of the daytime?
• How does a society’s definition of “sin” influence/affect the individual?
• How do hypocrisy and conformity continue to interact in The Scarlet Letter?

Independent Group Discussion: Use accountable talk while discussing the following questions-

Chapter 17

1. Why does Hester reveal the truth of Chillingworth’s identity? How does Dimmesdale react? What is your reaction to his reaction?
2. As Hester and Dimmesdale discuss “what to do” to escape Chillingworth, what does their conversation reveal about the nature of their relationship? How is each character strong or weak? In what way does each need the other?

Chapter 18

In the second paragraph of chapter 18, the narrator uses the phrase “a moral wilderness.” What is this intended to describe?

Chapter 19

Why is Pearl unable to share her mother’s joy over the scarlet letter’s removal? Why does she insist that Hester put the scarlet letter on again? Why does she reject Dimmesdale’s kiss?

Chapter 20

1. What four temptations does Dimmesdale face on his way home? What does Dimmesdale assume is the source of these temptations? What alternate explanation does the narrator offer? What further explanations for Dimmesdale’s “temptation” might be apparent to a modern reader?
2. What does Mistress Hibbins perceive when she meets Dimmesdale? When contrasted against Hester’s meeting with Mistress HIbbins at the end of chapter 8, how does Dimmesdale’s response to her further our understanding of the contrast between the two lovers?

Self-Assessment:

1. What methods does Hawthorne use to convey Hester’s ongoing transformation, which began in Chapter 15? What role does Pearl play in Hester’s transformation? (RL.11-12.3)
2.  How does Hester’s transformation support or contradict the ideas in Chapter 8? (RL.11-12.3)
3.  Consider the transformation that begins to unfold in Rev. Dimmesdale. What events illustrate his internal struggle?  What is the significance of Mistress Hibbins’ conversation with him? (RL.11-12.3)

Homework:

Select a passage from Chapter 20, no longer than 50 words. The passage needs to reveal deeply Hester or  Dimmesdale’s character. Write a PBFF response to analyze the passage

Lesson 15 

Texts: Chapters 21-24 from The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne; Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln

TEXT DESCRIPTION: The final section shows a great deal of action in a more rapid pacing than earlier in the story as the characters come together for the Rev. Dimmesdale’s final sermon. The story up until now has spanned seven years, yet the end of the story moves quite rapidly. The second text is the transcript of President Lincoln’s second inaugural address (post–Civil War), which addresses the reunification of America under the common belief that slavery is wrong.

Objectives: Students will be able to analyze Hawthorne’s methodology for this pacing by considering his uses of flashback and foreshadowing and reflecting back to his choice to begin the story with Hester in prison.

Aim: For what purposes does Hawthorn use flashback and foreshadowing throughout the novel?

Do Now:

• Identify unknown vocabulary (e.g., mirth, scruple, tempestuous, unbenignantly, animadversion, indefatigable, apotheosis, intimations, necromancer, penitence) and sentences with complicated, unusual, or interesting syntax.
• Explain the meaning of the words, how they are used in context (i.e., determine the part of speech based on its affix or placement in the sentence), and verify the meaning and part of speech in a dictionary. (L.11-12.4a-d, L.11-12.6)
• Then paraphrase or break down the sentences into shorter sentences and record the words, definitions, original sentences, and paraphrased sentences in a consistent location (i.e., journals). (L.11-12.1a-b, L.11-12.3a)

Mini Lesson:

1. Summarize the setting, characters, and events of Chapters 21-24. (RL.11-12.2)
2. Record examples of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter on a three-column graphic organizer (continuing the graphic organizer (RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.4, L.11-12.5a-b)
3. Work with a partner to produce written responses to the following questions:
   o Discuss the events that close out the story; analyze the actions and motivations of the characters (e.g., Dimmesdale’s final sermon, Pearl’s transformation, Chillingworth leaving his fortune, and Hester returning to the village). (RL.11-12.3, RL.11-12.4, RL.11-12.5)
   o Hawthorne specifically addresses the meaning of Pearl’s name. What meaning can you gather about the other names he uses in this text? How do the meanings of the names correlate with or contradict the characters? (RL.11-12.4)
   o Compare and contrast the struggles for redemption that Hester and Dimmesdale endure throughout the course of The Scarlet Letter. What does do their struggles reveal about their characters? (RL.11-12.3)

Student Independent Discussion

Read Lincoln’s second inaugural address independently (RI.11-12.10) and do the following tasks:

•  outline Lincoln’s argument, focusing on the following questions: (RI.11-12.8, RI.11-12.9)
• Identify two central ideas being discussed. What is Lincoln’s stated purpose?
• Next to each paragraph, paraphrase or summarize the content. (RI.11-12.2)
•  How do the word choice and sentence structure of paragraph 2 support the meaning of the paragraph? How does Lincoln’s style contribute to the impact of the speech? (RI.11-12.4, RI.11-12.5, RI.11-12.6, L.11-12.1, L.11-12.3a)
•  In paragraph 3, what similarities does Lincoln draw between opposing sides? How do the ideas that Lincoln describes introduce a paradox, and what meaning results? (RI.11-12.2, L.11-12.5a)
• How do the central ideas interact over the course of the text? Identify three quotations from the text that support this intersection and the relationship between the ideas. (RI.11-12.1, RI.11-12.2, RI.11-12.3)
• What reasons does Lincoln provide to support the influence of God’s will in matters of justice, war, and politics? (RI.11-12.3)
• How does Lincoln appeal to his audience to convince them of his purpose? (RI.11-12.6)

Assessment: Conduct a Socratic seminar in which students are prompted to synthesize information from each of the texts read thus far. (RL.11-12.2, RL.11-12.9, RI.11-12.9, SL.11-12.1a-d, SL.11-12.4, SL.11-12.6)
o How do varying levels of religious influence on governments dictate moral and ethical law?
o How does a society’s definition of “sin” influence/affect the individual?
o How do hypocrisy and conformity interact in The Scarlet Letter?
o In Chapter 23 of The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale acknowledge that he and Hester have sinned and defer to God’s will. How is this idea supported or refuted in the other texts of the unit? How have religious influences affected the delivery of justice and function of political decisions in US history?

End of the Lesson Assessment

• Work independently or in pairs for 15 minutes to devise answers to the questions and locate specific evidence from the unit texts. (RL.11-12.1)
• Form two concentric circles and have the inner circle discuss their answers to the questions for eight minutes using accountable talk,providing evidence for their ideas and actively incorporating others into the discussion. (SL.11-12.1a-b, SL.11-12.4)
• While the inner circle discusses, ask students in the outer circle to evaluate the point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence of a student in the inner circle. (SL.11-12.3)
• Have students in the outer circle record their thoughts using a platform like Todays Meet.15 (W.11-12.6) After the eight-minute discussion, swap the inner and outer circles and repeat the process.
• Following the discussion, have the class review the recorded thoughts and reflect on the seminar by indicating how their thoughts were justified or qualified based on the reasoning or evidence of others in the discussion and how they could improve future discussions (e.g., incorporating others into the discussion, asking more questions, making more connections between ideas). (SL.11-12.1c-d, SL.11-12.6)

Guided Discussion on the chapters:

Chapter 21

What bad news does Hester receive from the ship’s captain? How might this news suggest an impending tragedy to the reader?

Chapter 22

1. How has Dimmesdale’s appearance changed? In what way does he appear separate from the crowd and how does this affect Hester? How does this also foreshadow a possible tragedy?
2. What forbidden questions does Pearl ask when she sees Dimmesdale? What important symbolic contrast is highlighted by Hester’s response?
3. Why does Mistress Hibbins reproach Hester with “fie, woman, fie!”?

Chapter 23

1. How does Hawthorne further develop the symbolic importance of the scaffold during Dimmesdale’s sermon?
2. Describe and analyze the significance of each of the main character’s reactions to Dimmesdale’s confession. How is each one changed by his confession?
3. What are Dimmesdale’s last words? Is there anything significant about these words or the situation in which they are spoken?

Chapter 24

Summarize the concluding chapter in terms of character development and final thoughts offered by the narrator.

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Unit CULMINATING WRITING TASKS

( follow the MLA format by visiting https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ )

Students will select ONE topic to compose an either analytical essay or synthesis essay based on their interests and strengths.

1. Symbolism

A. The highly charged symbolism of The Scarlet Letter is one of its most distinctive features. Discuss the central symbol of the story—the scarlet letter itself. What does it signify? How does it function in the novel? How does its meaning change over time?

B. The Scarlet Letter contains a number of significant symbols. Write a literary analysis that examines how Hawthorne’s choices in character development, setting development, and the structure of events contribute to the development of two central ideas of The Scarlet Letter. (RL.11-12.2, RL.11-12.3, RL.11-12.5) In the analysis, focus on how word choice, tone, and symbolism contribute to the development of characters, setting, and events of the novel. (RL.11-12.4, L.11-12.5a-b) Provide strong and thorough textual evidence that is integrated while maintaining the flow of ideas and including proper citation. (RL.11-12.1, W.11-12.1a-e, W.11-12.8, W.11-12.10, L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2a-b)

2. Research-BASED TASK
   The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States (the “Free Exercise Clause”) guarantees freedom of religion, speech, press, petition, and assembly.

Investigate the challenges to and limits of the amendment in regard to religion.
1. Select a topic that examines the role of religion in America (e.g., Supreme Court cases over religious matters, separation of church and state, role of religion in historical events, religious cults, or history of various religions).
2. Research a self-generated question. Gather multiple digital and print resources, assessing their usefulness and synthesizing information to demonstrate an understanding of the chosen topic. (W.11-12.7, W.11-12.8)
3. Write a research-based, multipage report that first explains the topic and then defends or disputes the importance of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. (RI.11-12.1, W.11-12.1a-e, W.11-12.2a-f, W.11-12.9b, W.11-12.10)
4. Be sure to incorporate quotations from multiple sources while maintaining the flow of ideas and. Use Supreme Court rulings as models for the structure, development, language, and style of the argument. (W.11-12.4, W.11-12.8, L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2a-b, L.11-12.3a

3. Literary Style and Themes

Hawthorne’s work belongs to Romanticism, an artistic and intellectual movement characterized by an emphasis on individual freedom from social conventions or political restraints, on human imagination, and on nature in a typically idealized form. Romantic literature rebelled against the formalism of 18th century reason.

Much of Hawthorne’s work is set in colonial New England, and many of his short stories have been read as moral allegoriesinfluenced by his Puritan background.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

4. Characterization in The Scarlet Letter

• Pearl – relationship with nature, intuition
• Hester – defined by the scarlet letter, changes
• Chillingworth – tragic figure, changes
• Dimmesdale – respect, changes, tragic hero
• Character development through the 3 scaffold scenes
• Character’s internal struggles revealed through physical traits
• Opposite character of Hester and Dimmesdale
• Mother/Daughter relationship
• Hester as Dimmesdale’s source of strength
• Dimmesdale and Pearl’s relationship
• How is each of the characters affected by the scarlet letter?

4. Reading Images in The Scarlet Letter
5. Nature in The Scarlet Letter

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Socratic Seminar Questions ( 4 seminars total)

How do we conduct a Socratic seminar-

• Form two concentric circles and have the inner circle discuss their answers to the questions for eight minutes using accountable talk,providing evidence for their ideas and actively incorporating others into the discussion. (SL.11-12.1a-b, SL.11-12.4)
• While the inner circle discusses, ask students in the outer circle to evaluate the point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence of a student in the inner circle. (SL.11-12.3)
• Students in the outer circle record their thoughts using a platform like Todays Meet.15 (W.11-12.6) After the timed discussion, swap the inner and outer circles and repeat the process.
• Following the discussion, the class will review the recorded thoughts and reflect on the seminar by indicating how your thoughts were justified or qualified based on the reasoning or evidence of others in the discussion and how you could improve future discussions (e.g., incorporating others into the discussion, asking more questions, making more connections between ideas). (SL.11-12.1c-d, SL.11-12.6)

Socratic seminar(#1) :students are to synthesize information from each of the texts read thus far. (RL.11-12.2, RL.11-12.9, RI.11-12.9, SL.11-12.1a-d, SL.11-12.4, SL.11-12.6)

• How do varying levels of religious influence on governments dictate moral and ethical law?
• How does a society’s definition of “sin” influence/affect the individual?
• How do hypocrisy and conformity interact in The Scarlet Letter?
• In Chapter 23 of The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale acknowledge that he and Hester have sinned and defer to God’s will. How is this idea supported or refuted in the other texts of the unit? How have religious influences affected the delivery of justice and function of political decisions in US history?

Socratic Seminar(#2) Discussion Questions

1. Describe Pearl’s dress and comment on its significance.
2. Describe the construction and furnishing of Governor  Bellingham’s mansion. What does it reveal about Puritan culture?
3. Kathryn Harrison, in her Introduction to this volume, asserts that Hester Prynne can be seen in many ways as the first great modern heroine in American literature. Do you agree?
4. Dimmesdale is in many ways as central a character as Hester in the novel; for you as a reader, is he equally important to the story?
5. The highly charged symbolism of The Scarlet Letter is one of its most distinctive features. Discuss the central symbol of the story—the scarlet letter itself. What does it signify? How does it function in the novel? How does its meaning change over time?
6. Critics have sometimes disagreed about whether Hawthorne condones or condemns the adultery of Hester and Dimmesdale in the novel. Can either view be supported? Which do you feel is the case?
7. Describe and discuss the character of Roger Chillingworth in the novel. What does he represent in terms of the larger themes explored by the book?
8. How does Hester change over time in the novel—and how does she change in the eyes of the society around her?
9. The final scaffold scene brings the various themes, characters, and plotlines woven throughout the novel to a powerful conclusion. Describe your response to this scene, and to the disputed event that occurs near its end.

Socratic Seminar #3 (Questions issued by Random House US.)

1. Critics are divided over Hawthorne’s attitude to Hester’s affair, and whether the novel ultimately condemns or condones her actions. What do you think Hawthorne’s views are? What are your own?
2. Where Hawthorne does seem to uncritically hold Hester up for our admiration is in her steadfast refusal to name Pearl’s father. Why do you think this is? Do you share his admiration for this action?
3. As noted in the biography section, Hawthorne changed his name in his early 20s, adding a W to the original Hathorne. Some critics have suggested this was to distance himself from famous Puritan ancestors, particularly one forebear who presided over the  Salem Witch Trials. From your reading of the book, do you think this could be true? How does Hawthorne depict the Puritan community and their leaders?
4. The priest in the story, Dimmesdale, is a figure of hypocrisy who preaches virtue from the pulpit and refuses to take his daughter’s hand in public—but pays a terrible personal price for his actions. What points do you think Hawthorne is trying to make about organised religion? How far is Dimmesdale responsible for his own actions and how much are the townsfolk responsible for forcing him into his position?
5. The critic Kathryn Harrison has written that Hester is “the herald of the modern American heroine, a mother of such strength and stature that she towers over her progeny much as she does the citizens of Salem.” Do you agree?
6. Because the novel is set before the time in which he is writing, Hawthorne deliberately uses an old-fashioned style with some archaic language. Do you find this effective or a distraction?
7. The novel contains hints, early on, that Hester is descended from an impoverished but formerly noble family in England: “She saw again her native village, in Old England, and her paternal home: a decayed house of gray stone, with a poverty-stricken aspect, but retaining a half obliterated shield of arms over the portal, in token of antique gentility.” There is a suggestion, toward the end, that Pearl may have returned to these roots by marrying into a wealthy European family, possibly nobility. What role, more generally, does class play in the novel?
8. How does Hawthorne describe the scarlet letter itself and in what different forms does it appear in the novel?
9. “Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of man’s faculty of transforming himself into a devil.” What role does the character of Hester’s estranged husband, Roger Chillingworth play? Do you think he is morally more degenerate than Hester and her lover, or do you have sympathy for his campaign of revenge? Do you think he redeems himself at all with his bequest to Pearl at the end of the story?

Socratic Seminar #4 on Extended Reading

Read the December 23, 1776, entry from The Crisis, No. 1 by Thomas Paine and the last two paragraphs from “A Model of Christian Charity” by John Winthrop independently. (RI.11-12.10) Then construct evidence-based responses about the text-

1. What is the impact of Paine’s use of literary devices (e.g., allusion, hyperbole, analogy, etc.) in The Crisis, No. 1? Explain how these devices strengthen the persuasiveness of the text. (RI.11-12.1, RI.11-12.3, RI.11-12.4, RI.11-12.6, W.11-12.9b, W.11-12.10)
2. Review the following words from The Crisis, No. 1: impious, infidel, penitentially, solemnize, hypocrisy, ardor. Select one of the words and define it in context and explain how it is used in the sentence. (RI.11-12.4, L.11-12.4a, L.11-12.4b)
3. Compare and contrast the ideas set forth by Paine and Winthrop. (RI.11-12.9) Explain how Paine draws on ideas set forth by Winthrop to develop an effective argument, including the use of religious connotations, imagery, and allusions. (RI.11-12.5, W.11-12.2a-f, W.11-12.4, W.11-12.9b, W.11-12.10, L.11-12.2a-b, L.11-12.3a, L.11-12.5b, L.11-12.6)
4. Reread this quotation from Winthrop: “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.” Examine how Winthrop’s warning is expressed through one or more characters or events in The Scarlet Letter. (RL.11-12.9, RI.11-12.1, W.11-12.1a-e, W.11-12.4, W.11-12.9a-b, W.11-12.10, L.11-12.2a-b, L.11-12.3a, L.11-12.6)

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Guidelines about writing the essay-

Title: Please title your paper.  Be creative when giving your paper a title.  Hint: “Character Analysis” is not an original title!  Title should be centered.  DO NOT capitalize, underline, or use quotation marks on your paper’s title.  If you use the title of the novel in the title of your paper underline only the title of the novel.

Introduction: Introducing your topic, Context, Thesis statement

Body Paragraphs

• Each paragraph should have strong topic sentence.
• Each paragraph should contain three quotes or quote bits to illustrate a quality or characteristic.  Quotes are like pictures in a book.  They do not tell the story; they illustrate it.  You are the storyteller.  Do not depend on your quotes to prove your point.  What you say about your quote (how you logically tie your quotes into your argument) should prove your point.  You should be able to take your quotes out of your paper and the logic and sense of your point should still be there.  You need to discuss each quote and show how it illustrates the point you are making.  Never expect the reader to do this for himself.  You must show the reader why the particular quote you chose is relevant to the point you are making.  This means you will always discuss each quote you use to show how it illustrates you point.
• The three steps in proving a point are:

1. Make a statement
2. Use a quote or quote bit to illustrate your point
3. Analysis: logically show the reader how the particular quote or example proves your point

Conclusion Paragraph

• Restate Thesis
• Broaden out to discuss the character.
• Paragraph should have at least 3 sentences.
• Remember this is the last thing your reader reads, so make it memorable.

Helpful Hints

1. Always write in present tense (says not said, does not did, etc.)
2. Always use lead-ins before each quote (ex.  In Chapter 3 Dimmesdale says to Chillingworth,”…” (p. 67).
3. Paper should be typed.
4. Topic sentences should refer back to your thesis statement.  Usually a thesis statement will mention your topic sentence subjects in the order in which they occur in the body of your paper.
5. Don’t use “I” or “I believe” or “you”
6. Don’t say “this quote shows” or “here is a quote that proves.”  This is redundant.
7. Always discuss each quote and its significance.
8. Be careful of telling too much of the story, but some clarification is necessary.  Tell the reader what was going on when the quote was said.  Think of the reader as someone who has not read the story, but is intelligent.  The reader is a friend of yours, not the teacher.  So don’t assume anything.
9. Use of the semi-colon. Use a semicolon to join parts of a compound sentence if no coordinating conjunction is used. Example:  Secret Service agents scanned the area; everything seemed in order.
10. Use a semi-colon before a conjunctive adverb that joins clauses of a compound sentence. Example:  Three local factories have closed; consequently, many people have been laid off.

Did you really prove your thesis?

Read your paper over, or better yet, have someone else read your paper.  Does it make sense?

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Writing the Paper

Paper Introduction Class discussion notes on thesis:

The Thesis Statement

• The point the paper puts forward
• Drives the organization of the paper

Example of a thesis

Quality X [(is/isn’t) point about Quality X]________ as  Character(______)illustrates when [story example about his or her Quality X]_______________________.

Example Applied

Guilt destroys mankind from within, as Arthur Dimmesdale’s debilitating illness illustrates in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter. Dimmesdale is unable to admit his sin of adultery and that he is the father of young Pearl driving him to a cycle of public hypocrisy that eats at his conscience destroying him from the inside out; in contrast, Hester Prynne bravely wears the Scarlet Letter, able even to face down authorities in defense of her daughter.

Note the thesis:

Guilt destroys mankind from within, as Arthur Dimmesdale’s debilitating illness illustrates in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter.

Note the supporting ideas that follow. The paper will show his guilt, his refusal to admit it and the resulting hypocrisy and the physical effects of his inward distress. To further emphasize the point, the writer will contrast Hester’s demeanor and strength.

To write the rest of the paper, keep in mind …

Each body paragraph is a mini-essay within the whole essay: each has a topic sentence (the main idea/”thesis”), support (quote from the play) , explanation (reasons the point is true). The acronym P.I.E. may help you to check for development within your paragraphs: point, illustration, explanation. Paragraphs should be well developed so the reader knows the how, why and because of each supporting point. Paragraph should end with a segway into the next body paragraph,  a sentence that provides a  logical bridge built with transition words or phrases.

• Topic sentence
• Quote
• Explanation of what quote proves
• Transition to next point

In writing that flows well, readers feel an underlying coherence, meaning that the flow of ideas from one sentence to the next and one paragraph to the next is clear throughout. Make sure that readers understand how each sentence connects with the unifying idea of its paragraph and how each paragraph with the unifying idea of the entire paper (thesis).

Transition words or phrases include phrases that show what is inext is additional support, a contrast or comparison, movement through a chronology (time sequences), location, or summary: besides, furthermore, for instance, to illustrate, in contrast, in spite of, still, yet, though, similarly, afterward, during, finally, subsequently, as a result, because, since, otherwise, for this reason, therefore – are a few examples of transitions.

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Scarlet Letter Paper Revision  Guidelines

Merely presenting evidence does not guide the reader’s understanding because evidence can be interpreted any number of ways. Have a point, and you have evidence, explain how that evidence illustrates your point.

OR

Your writing made important points but the crucial elements of those points were not supported with textual evidence from the novel. Do you need help identifying the heart of your argument, the part that must be supported?

 2. Incorrect analysis 

In some cases, your analysis indicates you did not read or partially read the novel. This results in incorrect or out of context interpretations. For example, if you commented on Pearl’s idyllic childhood or on the happy ending for Dimmesdale, you  probably did not finish the book.

Some phrases showed up repeated in a number of papers, phrases that included incorrect use of adjectives. Since those adjectives were misused in connection with the same character over and over, I looked them up. They seem to come from online “study help” or essay sites, which are unreliable; they don’t care if you learn, but do care if they make money. Don’t be another victim.